Notes
Soundtrack suggestions:
The Indoraptor presentation:
- Thus begins the Indorapture — Michael Giacchino, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.
- In the Trench – Bear McCreary, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Season One, Episode Three: Adar) (Up to 03:10).
-o-
As the one he had just sold was taken out of the room, Gunnar Eversol announced the next batch. One of Mills' men climbed onto the conveyor, keeping on a leash a dark blue-grey theropod with a cream belly. Big as a Belgian sheepdog, it wore a muzzle which partially concealed its white face as well as its emerging red lacrymal crests. Just like the pectinodons which opened the auction, the animal was not an adult.
"A baby Allosaurus," the auctioneer said. "Fully grown, he will be a ferocious and aggressive predator."
As he spoke these words, an illustration of an adult Allosaurus fragilis (*) appeared on both screens, accompanied by a human figure for scale. The buyers saw that this animal could be nine meters long, three meters high, and weigh two tons.
In her earpiece, which she had taken care to conceal well, De Mafart heard Prieur's voice.
"Pretend you're interested..."
She suppressed a laugh and then wrote to him:
What the fuck would we do with an Allosaurus? Would we give it to the Jardin des Plantes? Or to Vincennes' Zoo?
Or we would put it in the Elysée's garden?
The Allosaurus' illustration was replaced by photos of live individuals taken in the Five Deaths. Whereas some were stock photos from InGen, others were more recent and had been found on the Internet by those who made the slideshow.
Having received the message from his colleague, Prieur added:
"If you abandon, others will see you as weak. They will underestimate you... But that's what we want. We're going to surprise them… Get ready, they're almost at the end."
When hands rose among the gathering, Sophie did the same. Until then, she had not bidded and was content with observing the auction. Many lots had been sold already: Claws, teeth and horns of various shapes and sizes; skins; a few busts, including a Sinoceratops which was acquired for an exorbitant price; suitcases of embryos; eggs; as well as various other living animals, small species or babies.
A representative of a pharmaceutical company had acquired the Pegomastax while a strange couple, consisting of a man and a woman each sporting on their arm a tattoo representing a snake hieroglyph, had bought the Purgatorius. The DGSE agent had even wondered how one could be interested in nothing but bloody squirrels in her eyes.
As soon as there were only three hands left, De Mafart gave up and shortly after, Eversol hit his desk with his gavel.
"Sold!"
The baby Allosaurus was taken out of the room and the conveyor brought some pelts. In her earpiece, De Mafart heard Hunebelle sigh.
"I hope they didn't told us tall stories," he said jadedly, frustrated to see that the batch consisted again of poached specimens, something they weren't interested in. "Because it wasn't very thrilling until now," he added before nibbling on a new handful of crisps.
"Patience, Hubert…," Prieur told him.
Following the auction's echoes in the tunnels, Claire, Owen and Guillaume walked down a small staircase and found a gallery with small grilles in the upper part of the wall. Approaching them, they caught a glimpse of the manor's underground conference room and knew they were in the right place. Stopping, they began to spy on the auction. Being one level above the old dance floor, they overlooked the buyers as well as the conveyor and the small stage. Seeing the batch of pelts being auctioned, the couple and the WDMC director realized soon enough with horror that they were those of de-extinct animals. Guillaume had the impression of being sent back fifteen years, during Operation Wyvern. He whispered:
"Poached specimens…"
On the platform, they saw the manager of the Lockwood Foundation seated at a table, gazing at the gathered buyers with a satisfied look.
"Eli!" Claire hissed, furious to see his involvement in the despicable traffic that was taking place before their eyes.
"Surprise surprise…" Owen said, less surprised than his girlfriend.
"Why am I not surprised either?" Guillaume added while taking out the recording equipment from his backpack. "I knew he was a huge two-faced!"
As the pelts had found their buyer, Eversol gave a gavel blow and shouted "Sold!" ". Next, a new batch was brought, consisting of Therizinosaurus claws.
"So while everyone's eyes are on the official legal auction in the marquee, Mills is having his own little evening," the fallen park director summed up. "That dirty hustler jerked us around!"
"And InGen is using the first as a smokescreen for this one," Guillaume added while filming the auction with a small camera.
"InGen is to blame for a lot of things but what would tell us it's involved in this auction?"
"Those specimens were poached during Operation Fallen Kingdom by mercenaries on its payroll."
"Wheatley," Owen growled.
Guillaume nodded.
"Survivors of the Fall left for dead saw them. They told me everything in an email I received a few months ago. They had evidence on a flash drive but unfortunately lost it during their journey to the Five Deaths."
Guessing the identity of those survivors, the couple widened their eyes in astonishment.
"Those survivors are the kids from Camp Cretaceous?" Owen asked the ex-Interpol agent in a surprised tone.
"That's why Torres sent a chopper after them," Claire realized. "They must have found out that Wheatley's guys were poaching for him. Kenji Kon indeed died because of InGen! If only I could convince his father about that... And Benito's story about the pectinodons makes sense now... I hope they didn't send any here."
"They have the butter, the money for the butter, the dairywoman and the countess' ass as a bonus," Guillaume summed up.
"It's fucking diabolical…" Owen said.
At the same time, a new batch crossed the double-door. It was a bust, that of a large theropod.
"Is that…?" Claire began in a tight voice, afraid that she recognized the animal.
"Yes," her boyfriend confirmed.
The fallen park director's fists clenched and under her hood, her jaw clenched and her face flushed.
"Bastards!" She hissed with hatred. "They have no shame..."
In the room, Eversol presented this new lot while it approached the end of the conveyor. Buyers looked at it with keen interest.
"A T. rex bust! One from a very particular individual… It knew John Hammond's stillborn park and was a star at Jurassic World for many years."
He wasn't lying. The bust was that of a female with scars on her head and neck, the one InGen's keepers had affectionately named Roberta almost thirty years earlier.
At the end of the Long Night, a short but special relationship existed between she and Claire. The fallen park director freed the old Tyrannosaurus and the two saved each other from the Indominus' claws and teeth, though it was unintentional on Roberta's side, and she hadn't hesitated to attack Claire after defeating her rival. While her bust was being auctioned off, Claire still remembered that moment when she and Owen were kneeling in the Richard Owen Avenue, letting the tyrannosaur come up to them, ready to greet death together… Then practically naked, wearing only the top of her torn jodhpurs, and badly injured, threatening to pass out any second, Claire had felt so vulnerable in front of the queen of the dinosaurs, without being terrified though… She had already accepted the idea that her time had come, and would have considered a death between Roberta's jaws as an honour, much like a defeated knight agreeing to be executed by another for whom he has great respect. No, beyond fear, Claire had above all felt humility and awe. No longer having any interest in them, Roberta had spared them and left Burroughs to return to her old lair and die there.
It would have been a good end for the old tyrannosaur but alas, the greed of the Men was great and after they found her dead, they had defiled her corpse to sell her bust to the highest bidder. An insult and an odious crime. Claire wished for all the participants of this abominable evening be sent to Tartarus or Náströnd, and if she had a Kalashnikov, she would have fired on the gathering without showing any discrimination, sparing only Mills for the sole purpose of interrogate him and subject him to a more special punishment. She could almost hear Angrboda's voice encouraging her to indulge in a massacre where she would unleash her wrath.
"Once…" the auctioneer said as only one raised hand remained. "Twice… Sold!"
Claire glared at the buyer who had just acquired the bust of Isla Nublar's true queen. Seeing him smiling, proud of his action, she wanted to cut his privates with a rusty scimitar before making him choke on it."
"Hold me back Owen," she said. "I want to go down and slaughter them!"
While he carefully scanned the buyers, Guillaume froze when he realized that Sophie was sitting among them.
"Putain, c'est pas vrai…" he muttered in a shocked voice.
As she heard him, Claire became worried:
"Mr. Vuillier?"
He then pointed at Sophie with his finger.
"You see the young blonde woman, the one with the short hair. I know her…"
Given his saddened tone, they understood that she was a friend of his.
"She works for the DGSE," he added.
"Isn't that your country's secret service?" Claire remembered.
"It is."
"What is one of their agents doing here?" Owen asked.
"Believe me, I would really like to know…" Guillaume replied.
As Roberta's bust just left the room, the double doors closed and Eversol leaned back towards his microphone.
"Now, ladies and gentlemen, we're reaching the end of our evening. Before you leave us and take your magnificent acquisitions home, we would like to give you a taste of a project we are working on, a creature of the future made from pieces of the past and the present."
In her ear piece, De Mafart heard Hunebelle getting excited before being interrupted by Prieur, who told his colleague to be ready.
"A mix of some of the most fearsome predators which ever walked this planet," the auctioneer added.
At the same time, a person wearing a strange black armour, the one Maisie had seen the previous day, came to position themselves near the conveyor. While the buyers eyed them warily, wondering who they were and what they were doing here, they prepared a long pointed stick, a small bucket containing pieces of meat, and a clicker.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the Indoraptor…" Eversol announced.
The double doors swung open, revealing a halo of white light in the middle of which a black figure, very similar to that of a predatory theropod dinosaur, could be made out. Standing on its hind legs, the dinosaur rose almost vertically, as if to stare closely at the ceiling of the cage in which it was locked. The conveyor brought it inside the conference room, and the buyers widened their eyes in amazement and gasped at the sight of the kind of animal they were shown.
The beast, entirely black and a little taller than a Man, had an elongated and graceful body comparable to that of a panther or a cheetah, long clawed arms and a head more like that of a False Killer Whale than that of a dinosaur. It parted its jaws, revealing fangs akin to those of many predatory mammals and rows of sharp, curved teeth. An unnatural nightmarish predator.
With its small red eyes with vertical pupils, he scanned the gathering while sniffling. Smelling the bits of meat in the bucket, it tilted its head towards the armoured person, none other than Maya Harris, and gave her a long look while she walked along the conveyor. Suddenly, she pulled a whistle from one of her pockets, blew into it, and the Indoraptor let out a terrifying roar that made the blood of most of the buyers run cold. Those near the conveyor and the trainer saw the latter smirking, as her helmet left the edge of her mouth exposed. Then she reached into the bucket of meat, grabbed one of the pieces, put it on the end of the pointed stick and stretched it through the bars of the cage while pressing the clicker. The Indoraptor grabbed the piece between its teeth and swallowed it.
On the screens in the corners, a representation of the Indoraptor as well as a whole bunch of annotations were displayed.
In the gallery overlooking the room, the couple and Guillaume looked at the animal in shock, aghast to see that it seemed to be trained and surprised by its presence under the Lockwood manor, the last place they would have expected to see it.
Claire noted the differences between it and the indoraptors she had seen in one of her nightmares, which mixed Indominus and raptor features, and therefore still looked quite dinosaur-like whereas the animal below was even weirder, mainly because of the melon on the head. This, combined with the black colour and general body shape, made the Indoraptor look like a famous fictional creature which Owen named:
"For fuck's sake, those morons made a xenomorph!"
"Yeah, it has a dickhead too," Claire added. "It's indecent..."
They were not the only ones to make the comparison with the icon of the Alien saga because when he had seen the first images of the animal, Alistair Iger had declared, in a jaded tone:
"I think Ridley Scott is gonna sue somebody…"
At the same time, the cage and its occupant passed in front of Sophie de Mafart who, unlike her neighbours, dared to look the creature in the eyes while Hunebelle murmured with excitement and Prieur whistled with admiration in her earpiece.
Shortly after, the cage arrived at the end of the conveyor and as the Indoraptor had showed a good behaviour, Maya rewarded it with another piece of meat.
"Good, Elsa. Who's a good girl?…" she said softly.
On the screens, the representation of the animal and the associated annotations gave way to photos of the Indominus, an Iroquois Neoraptor and various other animals, all those whose genes had been used in the creation of the Indoraptor: Tyrannosaurus, Majungasaurus, Rockhopper Penguin, Leopard, Bottlenose Dolphin, Chimpanzee, Eyelash Viper, the frog Hyalinobatrachium fleischmanni, Spotted Salamander, and Common Cuttlefish.
De Mafart heard Hunebelle burst out laughing.
"Is that Flipper the dolphin and Cheeta the chimpanzee from Tarzan on the slide?" He asked, half shocked, half amused.
In the gallery, Claire was outraged to notice that the organizers had decided to claim they had used chimpanzee DNA to hide what was a grave sin for many.
The cowards! They don't even admit they used human DNA! Did they use mine again to make that thing? If the Indominus is my "daughter", am I the Indoraptor's Grandma?! Replacing me with a chimpanzee... Wu is probably behind that! Another more or less subtle insult... He better be careful because chimpanzees are not gentle creatures! The "guenon" intends to give him a good beating!
While various diagrams and animations explained the legacy left by each of these species in InGen's latest creation, Eversol spoke again:
"This creature is the perfect weapon for our time. Not only is it built for combat, with more acute tactical responses than any human soldier, but we think it could also have a place in law enforcement."
As the auctioneer spoke, Claire was surprised to find Henry Wu absent from the presentation of his latest creation. She hoped he was still in the estate.
On the screens, a video showed a grenade falling in the middle of a group of dummies dressed like soldiers and releasing a reddish gas amidst which the dummies half disappeared before being attacked by Elsa in a slow motion scene. The scene took place in the old factory, reconverted into a training room and other short sequences showed the animal obeying different orders from her trainer, who communicated with her with oral orders, various acoustic signals as well as the American Sign Language. The buyers saw her ram a dummy head-on and tear it to pieces; stealthily approaching another using her cuttlefish-inherited camouflage ability before swooping down on it at the last moment to grab it by the throat and drag it to a dark area of the training room; running to another, knocking it down and putting one of her hand on it to prevent it from moving while Maya joined them, carrying handcuffs in her hand; or even take one gently out of a pile of rubble to put it on a stretcher.
"As you can see, this animal perfectly obeys its trainer, who has raised it since birth. It considers her as its mother," the auctioneer added while looking at Maya and Elsa at the end of the conveyor.
Finally, the screens showed representations of six differently coloured indoraptors. Possible skins, each named after a particular environment or climate, with the exception of a black one similar to Elsa called simply "Standard". There was a greenish one called "Jungle", a white one "Snow", a beige one "Desert", a grey one "Urban", and one with brown-green camouflage pattern "Temperate".
But while Eversol explained that the geneticists behind the creation of the animal were working on a new version, he was suddenly interrupted by Anton Orlov.
"Two hundred million!" he shouted.
Eversol turned to look at Mills. The latter nodded discreetly. They had expected this kind of reaction.
"No, it's a prototype. It is not for sale," the auctioneer specified.
"Two hundred and ten million!" a second buyer shouted.
Maya turned sharply back to the podium and shook her head, asking Mills and Eversol to not sell Elsa.
"It's still a prototype, but…" the auctioneer hesitated.
More buyers showed their interest, including De Mafart, and their voices soon echoed through the conference room. Not used to being in the presence of so many people and worried by the buyers' loud voices, Elsa got agitated and Maya tried to reassure her with soft words.
Eversol turned back to Mills, looking like he didn't know what to do. The manager of the Lockwood Foundation nodded, allowing him to sell the animal. When he faced the buyers again, the auctioneer smiled. In truth, he and Mills had planned to sell the Indoraptor and had only feigned surprise to better fool everyone, including Maya. To think that Mills had told her that the goal of this presentation was to acquire funding for her research… Technically, it was true but he had just forgotten to tell her that she and her animal were going to move soon. They just hoped that the Indoraptor would be acquired by a serious buyer with big plans for it, and not by some billionaire who wanted to complete their private menagerie or some unscrupulous ringleader who would send it to fighting pits. Their best hopes rested on Sophie De Mafart. They looked at her.
"Two hundred and fifty million!" she cried.
"Two hundred and seventy-five million!" Anton Orlov outbid before looking mockingly at the DGSE agent, believing that she would soon abandon like she had done for other batches.
It was then that Eversol intervened:
"Do I hear three hundred?"
De Mafart, Orlov and the other buyers continued to bid higher but some gave up already, as the price became too high. Studying his clients, the auctioneer already knew that the final round would be between the Russian mobster and the DGSE agent. The clan to which the former belonged may be rich, but the French government was even richer. The name of the Indoraptor's buyer could almost be already announced.
In their hidden vantage point, the couple and Guillaume exchanged worried glances. Claire got angry:
"If we were at the beginning of the previous century, they would probably have tried to sell it to the Kaiser!"
While picturing how the buyer would use the Indoraptor, she remembered a scene from her nightmare.
"Imagine a group of those creatures deployed in a riot…" she whispered suddenly.
"Even if they are trained to overpower and not to kill, they will sow fear and will be a powerful tool of intimidation in the service of the powerful," Guillaume added.
"Except that sooner and later they will rebel against their masters and kill anyone in their path. The Indominus nightmare will start again elsewhere, and it will be worse... That thing must not leave the estate."
It was then that the fallen park director moved away from the grille and headed for the gallery's exit. Owen followed her outside but Guillaume, still busy filming, didn't see them leave. He couldn't take his eyes off Sophie and was shocked to see her keep bidding.
The price of the Indoraptor was now over four hundred and fifty million dollars and continued to climb. The number of hands had shrunk considerably and soon only De Mafart and Orlov were left in the competition.
"Five hundred million!" the Russian shouted.
"Five hundred and twenty million!" The French outbid.
Orlov glared at her, as if to tell her that the Indoraptor was his and not hers, then shouted again.
"Five hundred and fifty million!"
There was a short silence during which the mobster believed that his competitor had given up, just when he threatened to ruin himself dangerously. But when she raised her hand, his face adopted a dismayed expression.
"Six hundred million!" The DGSE agent outbid.
Orlov slapped his thigh and sighed in frustration before mumbling something in his native language, probably an insult for De Mafart. Not seeing him outbid, Eversol stared at the young woman.
"Once, twice…" he began slowly, half expecting Orlov to outbid at the last moment.
The only manifestation from the Russian was another sigh and when the auctioneer struck the podium with his gavel, he muttered a series of swear words in an annoyed tone.
"Sold to our French friend for six hundred million!" Eversol announced.
De Mafart's colleagues immediately congratulated her.
"Well done, Sophie!" Prieur said with great satisfaction.
"Ah ah ... Mange tes morts le ruskov!" Hunebelle sneered.
The DGSE agent smiled while she contemplated the predator. She then noticed that the trainer was staring at her but, unable to see the eyes behind the visor, De Mafart was unaware of the gaze's nature. The conveyor was reactivated and the cage moved back towards the double doors, with Maya following it at a slow pace. She looked first at Elsa, then she turned her head to the platform and the two men who occupied it, staring at them too for a moment before leaving the room.
While Eversol gave a closing speech and Mills called Lynton and Torres to inform them of the Indoraptor's sale, Guillaume packed up his recording gear and left the gallery, searching for the couple while his thoughts were turned to Sophie and the Indoraptor. What were the French government's plans for this animal?
Notes
(*) In 2020, after the publishing of a paleontological study, the WDMC palaeontologists will realize that InGen's allosaurs belong to the jimmadseni species and not the fragilis species. The first has a longer snout than the second.